rantlust

Posted by anupcs on August 31st 2006 in Internet, Technology
::  [Print This Post]

When the increasingly unpopular Mr Cruise eventually comes around to making MI 4, his character is bound to get his next task via a Blackberry. The e-mail would then read:

“Good morning, Mr. Hunt. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, involves … yadi yada …. This e-mail would self-destruct in five seconds.”

The next version of MS Outlook is supposed to have a feature whereby e-mail you sent to people can be configured to expire after a specified period. (A feature called Information Rights Management is available on Outlook 2003 but it’ll work only if the recipient is also using MS Outlook and is not fool-proof.) The software will also allow you to prevent the e-mail from being printed or forwarded. Today there was an article in the Wall Street Journal about other (currently available) services that provide similar “security” features. One such service is Kablooey Mail. The service is still in Beta but promises a few other features for e-mailing apart from the timed expiration. As e-mail becomes more and more admissible in judicial cases, these features will become more valuable.

Comments(4)

Posted by anupcs on August 30th 2006 in Food & Wine
::  [Print This Post]

Milk is awesome. According to the 737 (at the time of writing) reviewers on Amazon. In case you haven’t heard, the online retailer has started offering gourmet food on its site. The current top seller in gourmet food is not milk though: it’s Haribo Gummi candy (?).

Anyone remember Webvan?

Comments(0)

Posted by riyer on August 24th 2006 in Rants
::  [Print This Post]

I am referring to the practice of asking chicks the time - as mentioned in this story
hey if you were a teenager in India in the late 70s early 80s, this was as good a line as any to start a conversation, so don’t knock it.

Comments(0)

Posted by crewcut on August 23rd 2006 in Blogs, Business, Rants
::  [Print This Post]

This is Broken is a blog which lists really dumb things that companies do. Here’s an example of something that’s broken: in Microsoft Outlook (and probably in other email clients) if you Reply to a email in the Sent folder, it puts only your name in the To line. Logical but useless and very annoying.

Seth Godin gives a really nice talk (20 mins), at the Gel Conference 2006, with lots of illustrations about things that are “broken.” How can anyone make a signboard that reads, “SOCCER MAY ONLY BE PLAYED IN ARCHERY RANGE”?

Comments(0)

Posted by bab on August 21st 2006 in Dance, Humor, India, Movies, bollywood
::  [Print This Post]

This is an old video about a white guy doing a bollywood number.

Comments(0)

Posted by john on August 21st 2006 in Rants, Sports
::  [Print This Post]

Darrell Hair, you fricking Aussie idiot of a cricket umpire, you’ve done it again. You’ve pulled off another biased decision against a South Asian cricket team (Pakistan) and are getting defended by that spineless sport body that call themselves the International Cricket Council (ICC). To the uninitiated, Darrell Hair is a “neutral” umpire of Australian citizenship who uncannily chooses his controversies mostly if they deal with umpiring rulings against non-white countries such as India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

(Read more…)

Comments(10)

Posted by anupcs on August 21st 2006 in Internet, Technology
::  [Print This Post]

Google, as some of you might be aware, rolled out its free wireless Internet service in Mountain View last week. Armed with my wife’s Macbook and the fabulous CoconutWifi app, I decided to give it a whirl this weekend. The trial was a disappointment though I have to admit that I didn’t try hard enough.

I could “see” the network from my home office but couldn’t connect to it. Google does say that this is primarily an outdoor network and if you want to use it at home, you would need a WiFi modem ($75-$200). From my car, on the street near my apartment, I was able to join the network. After I connected, I brought up Safari and was immediately taken to the WiFi login page. This page downloaded quite fast. The login took a while to process. After that, I was free to browse. The Google main page did appear after about seven seconds or so. Rantlust, unfortunately, did not. Nor did CNN. I gave up after about ten seconds for each. No, I did not drive around and try to access the various places in Mountain View and check the upload and download speeds. Apparently, it’s much better in other places. I’ll post updates if and when I use this service in other places in the neighborhood.

Comments(1)

Posted by renéejo on August 21st 2006 in Crime, Rants
::  [Print This Post]

I find it really amazing that an alleged child killer got to travel in business class, and gorge himself on prawns, duck and even drink champagne during his flight to the US. Whether or not John Mark Karr killed that girl is besides the point. If you are a strong suspect for such a brutal murder, you should be handcuffed and forced to sit next to the toilet in coach, not put in business class! This is where the American tax payer’s money is going… treating sick criminals to champagne. Shame on the big bad government!

If it were me making these decisions, this guy would have been put inside the toilet or in the cargo hold. The fact that he is now in some small cell is little consolation.

Comments(2)